Miscellaneous

Good evening, and we're having quite a rain session...4th day running. But we didn't get any ice, thank goodness - it didn't get cold enough. The rivers are running in full spate though, and there's a bit of flooding of some areas. Where our place is we are pretty high, so don't usually worry about that for ourselves, just the community. Don't have a card to share tonight, so I'll ramble on for a bit. (I'm good at that, in case you hadn't noticed! :-)

I had a question about the Genesis cutter I showed on WOYWW, so I'll try to have a go with that as my subject tonight. Firstly, the Genesis is fairly expensive - at least I thought so. I got the model with the light, and there's an extra attachment 'bar' type of thing, which is handy if you are 'power cutting'. (a term from my friends who do a lot of assembly line cards). I don't do that. I'd be bored. I thought long & hard about shelling out for the cutter, but I've bought Fiskars, Olfas, Tonic and you can just about name each one on the craft store market. All worked fine at first, then the blade would get dull, need replacing - which they don't cost that much. But I still didn't always get a good clean or even straight cut. Now, honestly, a lot was operator error. Several of my stamp friends - who have been at this hobby for long years - have this cutter and waxed glowingly when talking about "my Genesis". I sort of 'humphed' to myself, and thought "I'm not paying that kind of money to just cut paper! This is a hobby, not a business".
One day in November 2011 I went to a buddy's house; she sort of knew I was weakening on the cutter idea, Christmas was coming, and all that...in other words: A Mark on the Horizon!!! (LOL, she doesn't get a kickback from the business, just loves her cutter and wanted me to have one to love too). I did some cutting that afternoon...and folks...I was a goner. Came home, told DH, "I'm ordering my Christmas present...you don't have to buy me a single other thing". And thus it came to pass....The light attachment is wonderful because you can see exactly where the blade will cut, so I get much cleaner, straighter cuts. The bar attachment is nice if you are cutting several pieces of a specific size,  I don't keep the bar attached unless I need to use it. You position the bar on the vertical measuring line, butt the paper against it, hold paper in place with your hand and slide the blade to make your cut. The blade is extremely sharp, like a rotary cutter in shape, and I've never nicked myself. I can cut so that it's a scant sliver removed, which I certainly cannot on a 'regular' cutter. The measurement markings are done with a laser so I'm told, & are extremely accurate. The cutter will handle chipboard easily (which I seldom use), vinyl, & goodness, I don't know what-all. I just use it for paper, and I do love it. I truly feel it was a good investment, and I won't be spending to buy more cutters. I use the 'old ones' for taking to classes or my stamp group meetings.

 There is an online website, but I chose to get the phone number, and called the place. Got the owner (whom I had never met, but later did at a craft show). The store is located in Atlanta, about 2 1/2 hours south of where we live. A friendly lady, not pushy, told me all I ever wanted to know about how she got to selling this cutter (and none of which I really remember! Again Operator Error). Turns out their store is on the route that we take to Florida, but we were traveling in non-store hours. She kindly gave me her cell phone, said if I'd call 15 minutes prior to being near the location, she'd drive over, meet us, I could get my cutter, avoid shipping charges. How nice! Well, then as conversation went on, she realized if I came into the store & purchased, she'd have to hit me with state sales tax, but if she mailed it, no tax on internet purchases. So we decided on just shipping it, I didn't have to worry about the light breaking while traveling, etc. Went that route & my new toy baby arrived quite rapidly.  OK..fast forward a couple of days. My friend happened to see on Facebook that the store was having a  free shipping pre-Christmas promo if you ordered the cutter by Dec 15 ( for which I had certainly qualified); we both wondered would I get this free shipping. I DID! Called to thank Miss Bonnie, and she said my ordering in November prompted her to think about avoiding the Christmas shipping rush, and my credit card got the shipping charges removed. I like being treated  that way by a business.  Now in February of the following year (2012....seems like a long time ago!) we went to a stamp convention where Bonnie's Best Tools was a vendor, so we got to meet this lovely person. And DH bought me the Stamp Press  which I've mentioned using. He saw Bonnie demonstrate it (I didn't  - I had walked off to look at some stamps in the next booth). He thought it was something I needed - I DID as I found out later - and as some of my buddies said "Oh he is SUCH an enabler". Because 3 of them bought the stamp press too after he told them about it. OK...I've rambled enough. Hope you enjoyed the tale, and maybe I can get a card for tomorrow. Got some I need to start. Hugs & have a wonderful Friday.